Meanwhile the stock market – already up 85pc since its trough in the slump of 2009 – is predicted to reach an all-time high next year.

But what is going nowhere is the inheritance tax threshold, at £325,000 per person and expected to remain at that level until 2019. Above that limit, estates are taxed at 40pc. The result? An increasing slice of families’ wealth is being shorn away by the taxman.

The Government’s inheritance tax-takewas climbing steadily even before the current surges in housing and other assets. At more than £3bn for the tax year ending April 2013, the tax paid was 7pc higher than in the previous year – and 30pc higher than in the year ending April 2010.

Financial planners say inheritance tax is now of such concern to families that it has become a principal area of their business. A partner at one large planning practice based in the Midlands told The Sunday Telegraph: “The vast majority of our work focuses around two areas of advice: helping people arrange finances at the point of retirement, and then helping again with estate planning as they try to mitigate inheritance tax liabilities for their families.”

Increasing legislation has tightened the IHT rules and made them more difficult to negotiate. Many families will not be able to avoid the tax – and still meet their objectives of, for instance, retaining control of the assets – without professional input. But many families, even those whose assets exceed the threshold, can limit the impact of the tax by following a few basic measures.

Know what your estate is worth… Britain’s dysfunctional housing market is experiencing record divergences in house price. The average London home at £331,000 – according to data published on Friday – has already burst through the single person’s threshold. Without some clear idea of the value of an estate, or how that value is spread across housing or other assets such as savings, families cannot plan.

… and consider what would happen on your death. Dying intestate often triggers avoidable inheritance tax, so an up-to-date will is the first and vital step. No tax applies to assets bequeathed from one spouse to another. Problems materialise where a surviving spouse or a single person dies. A valuable concession allows one spouse’s unused tax-free allowance to be transferred to the survivor. So if you are the second spouse to die, your executors can add the unused percentage of your late husband or wife’s allowance, up to 100pc, to yours. At today’s threshold this permits each couple to leave £650,000 tax-free.

Start giving it away… Older family members are already making big financial contributions to younger generations through school fees, property purchases and so on. Planning this giving from a tax perspective could be worthwhile, as limits apply to what can be given tax-free.

If you make financial gifts above the limits and then die within a seven-year period, the gifts are taxable along with the rest of your above-the-threshold estate. These possibly taxable gifts are known as “potentially exempt transfers”.

The key annual allowance is £3,000 per person allowed to be gifted out of the estate with no tax consequences. One year’s unused allowance can be rolled over, so a couple could, potentially, give £12,000 today with no comeback from the tax collector.

You can also give up to £250 per person without a limit on the number of recipients.

Phil Haden, director at financial planner McCarthy Taylor, said: “When combining this with using such gifts to invest in a child’s or grandchild’s Isa or pension, then this provides a very tax-efficient solution.”

Stephen Womack of financial adviser David Williams added: “Another strategy that is often overlooked is the relief on regular gifting from income. This allows you to pass down surplus income each year, again moving the money out of your estate with no loss of the exemption. To qualify, the transfer must be out of normal spending and not reduce your standard of living. But you can use this to cover, for example, monthly contributions you make into an Isa for a child or a regular savings plan for a grandchild.”

Gifting out of income could pique the interest of the taxman after your death, as it is likely to apply only to people with large estates or pensions. So, as a help to your executors, document your regular spending to show the income is indeed spare.

… or restructure it to reduce its taxable value… The problem with giving assets away is that you lose access to them – or the returns they generate, if you need them – as well as control over how they are used. This is where estate planning ratchets up a gear, and where you will need help. Mr Womack advised: “The area of trusts is getting very complex, but in essence they allow the donor to retain an element of control about who benefits from the gift, and when. If you go for a discretionary trust, you have complete control. You can control how investments are managed, which children or grandchildren benefit, and when.”

This structure addresses worries such as feckless squandering of the cash by youngsters – or loss of it through a beneficiary’s divorce.

Other trust structures permit lesser control. You tend to sacrifice either your control over the asset or your ability to benefit from it, depending on the arrangement used, Mr Womack warned. “It is an area where good advice can pay for itself many times over.”

… or invest it in something exempt from the tax. Mr Haden said: “There are other opportunities, including investing in Aim portfolios or more specific investments that qualify for business property relief.” Aim shares are traded on London’s specialist market for smaller firms – and so tend to be risky. These investments, and others that qualify as exempt, need to be held for two years before their owner dies if they are to fall outside their estate for tax purposes.

Finally, make sure you don’t inherit more yourself. Britain’s ageing population means some people inherit very late in their lives. If your estate already exceeds the threshold and you have no need of any bequest, a “deed of variation” can be utilised to pass the money directly to your own heirs, without it adding to your estate for taxation purposes. This is a highly tax-efficient way of pushing wealth down a generation or two, even where the original owner of the assets had failed to plan effectively.